8. College of Liberal Arts

As an alternative to the Bachelor of Arts degree, the Bachelor of Science in Psychology is designed to offer students a more extensive scientific program that may better prepare them for graduate study or employment in research fields. Students interested in mathematics-based or physiology-based areas of psychology have the opportunity to develop more breadth and depth in the fields that complement their area of interest within psychology. To accomplish this goal, emphasis in the Bachelor of Science in Psychology degree is more on natural sciences and less on language arts.

A student may not earn both the Bachelor of Arts with a major in psychology and the Bachelor of Science in Psychology.

A total of 120 semester hours is required for the degree. Of the 120 hours, thirty-six must be in upper-division courses. At least thirty hours, including eighteen hours of upper-division coursework, must be taken in residence at the University; at least twenty-four of the last thirty hours must be taken in residence at the University. Provided residence rules are met, credit may be earned by examination, by extension, by correspondence (up to 30 percent of the hours required for the degree), or, with the approval of the dean, by work transferred from another institution. No courses used to fulfill area, major, or minor requirements may be taken on the pass/fail basis. No more than thirty-six hours may be counted in any one subject (including psychology) or in courses offered in any one college or school other than the College of Liberal Arts or the College of Natural Sciences.

Four categories of work must be completed: prescribed work, the major, the minor, and electives. Only in the following cases may a single course be counted toward more than one requirement:

Courses counted toward the prescribed work may also be counted toward the major.

Up to three hours of coursework counted toward the prescribed work may also be counted toward the minor.

Courses counted toward the substantial writing component requirement may also be counted toward other requirements.

Area A, Language and Literature

English composition and literature: Rhetoric and Composition 306 and English 316K.

Writing: In addition to Rhetoric and Composition 306 and English 316K, each student must complete two courses certified as having a substantial writing component. One of these courses must be upper-division; both must be taken for a letter grade. Courses used to fulfill the writing requirement may be used simultaneously to fulfill other area requirements or major requirements, unless otherwise specified. Courses with a substantial writing component are identified in the Course Schedule.

Foreign language/culture: Students must complete one of the following options:

Second-semester-level proficiency in a foreign language.

First-semester-level proficiency in a foreign language and a three-semester-hour course in the culture of the same language area.

Two three-hour foreign culture courses chosen from a list available in the Student Division and the Department of Psychology.

Area B, Social Sciences

Eighteen semester hours, distributed among at least four of the following fields of study.

Six hours in each of the following fields of study:

American government, including Texas government

American history

Three hours each from any two of the following fields of study. With the approval of the dean, courses in other social sciences may be counted toward this requirement.

Anthropology

Economics

Geography

Linguistics

Psychology

Sociology

Area C, Natural Sciences

At least twenty-five semester hours in natural sciences, consisting of

At least nine semester hours of mathematics: Mathematics 305G, 408C, and 316 or a higher-level math course in probability.

Sixteen to eighteen semester hours, consisting of two of the following sequences:

Area D, General Culture

Six semester hours from the fields of study listed below. Three of these six hours must be chosen from subarea 1, 2, 3, or 4 (excluding courses in logic).

A student who uses Greek or Latin to meet the foreign language requirement may use additional coursework in the same language to meet the Area D requirement, but only courses beyond the second-semester proficiency level may be used.

Twenty-eight semester hours of psychology, including Psychology 301 and 418, each with a grade of at least C, and at least eighteen semester hours of upper-division coursework. Of these twenty-eight hours, eighteen hours, including Psychology 418 and at least six hours of upper-division coursework, must be completed in residence at the University. Also included in these twenty-eight hours must be at least one three-semester-hour course in each of four areas:

Twelve semester hours, including at least nine hours of upper-division coursework, in any one other field of study in the University. Six of the twelve hours must be taken in residence. No more than three of the twelve hours may also be counted toward any area requirement for the degree.

Additional restrictions may be imposed by the academic department(s) in which the student completes the minor; before planning to use a course to fulfill the minor requirement, the student should also consult the department or program that offers the course.

The student must earn a grade point average of at least 2.00 in courses taken at the University (including credit by examination, correspondence, and extension) for which a grade or symbol other than Q,W,X, or CR is recorded. In addition, the student must earn a grade point average of at least 2.00 in courses taken at the University and counted toward the major requirement.

Students in this degree program may pursue any of the honors programs available to Bachelor of Arts, Plan I students. These programs are described in the section "Liberal Arts Honors Programs, Plan I."